Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa. “Introduction: The Functions of Courts in Authoritarian Politics,” Introduction. In Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes. Edited by Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa, 1–22. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Summary: Political developments in the late twentieth century dramatically increased the importance of courts and judges for the study of comparative politics. The spread of power to courts in new and fragile democracies and countries with hybrid or authoritarian regimes, and their role in the defense of rights and checking actions of the executive, have made the power of judges a vital matter for understanding politics in authoritarian as well as democratic states. Moreover, students of political transition (or democratization) have treated independent and powerful courts as a necessary ingredient in the ideal model of consolidated democracy. There is every reason, therefore, to welcome the appearance of a new generation of research and scholarship on courts and judges in countries outside the world of established democracies. This review concerns studies of courts in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and the USSR.